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Pinterest
What is Pinterest Pinterest is a digital pin board. Users are able to add pins from anything from the internet or they can re-pin items from searching within Pinterest. Users organize their “boards” just subjects so that they are able to go back and see the recipes they liked or lesson plans for specific subjects. Pinterest was launched in 2010. Usage Using Pinterest varies for each user. Some popular ways to use Pinterest include organizing recipes, getting craft ideas, interior design or even lesson planning ideas. The addition of the social aspect of Pinterest has also allowed users to plan weddings or events through Pinterest. Businesses can even have their own Pinterest page. The best thing... The best thing about Pinterest is that it is a social media site for visually oriented people. Access to beautiful photographs and stunning visuals about any subject one can imagine are only a click away when on Pinterest, and all images can be instantly pinned to your boards or admired from your home page by "following" the original pinner. For those of us that tend to think sometimes in visual images or just appreciate beautiful photography. Pinterest is a stunning smorgasboard of imagery. Enjoy the feast for the eyes! Legal issues An interesting issue that has come up while using Pinterest is the legal issues of reposting images from the internet. There is a invisible line on the internet between fair use and copyright. As a user I am constantly finding lesson plans, recipes or craft ideas and reposting them to Pinterest. This is wonderful for me because it allows me to organize my thoughts but what about the creator of the photos or blogs? Do they have a right to decided where their posts are being shared, or is it the idea that once it’s on the internet it is fair game? Educational uses This is where the real fun comes in my opinion. Pinterest is a wonderful research tool for educators. You can see the potential by just doing a quick google search (what our looking for) + Pinterest. The search results are full of Pinterest pages devoted to any lesson or theme you can think of. This has become a wonderful way for teachers to share ideas and fill their own lessons with wonderful ideas and crafts. Another way for Pinterest to be used is class pages. If a teacher sets up a class page that all the students can post to then the whole class can be part of a group research project. They can add their own findings and see what other people have found. This is a wonderful source because these are the types of things future jobs will be doing. working together and sharing information in real times is a valuable skill to have Another wonderful way for students to use this is for organizing their ideas. When students are involved with many different research topics and classes, it can be a bit overwhelming. Teaching students to use Pinterest as an online organizer can be a valueable tool. Just think how easy it would be to add the “pin it” tab to their browsers and while they are researching the net they can just pin ideas, pictures and articles to different boards that are organized for different classes or different ideas for projects. Not only does they help them learn to manage the vast amount of information but is gives them a vault of resources to pull from for the future. Pinterest is also a great way for teachers to share their ideas with one another. These could be about new project ideas, assignments, or other necessities to running a successful classroom. As mentioned above, searching in Pinterest is really easy too. It allows you to search tags or boards that you might be looking for. You can find what you're looking for and then some! Pinterest also helps teachers with classroom organization tips, discipline tips, and even safety tips. First Time Teachers Pinterest can also be a good tool for first time teachers. There are a plethora of materials categorized in a user-friendly manner. A teacher can simply type in the search bar the theme of their lesson plan for the week, and many manipulatives can be accessed. Not only is Pinterest great at utilizing its tools to organize effortlessly, but it is also a good base for harboring the large amount of information on the internet. There are links to blogs, cookbooks, and absolutely anything and everything that is posted on the internet. Pinterest is a great first year teacher tool because it links to sites such ashttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/ Teachers Pay Teachers . Without it, some professionals may have stumbled across this amazing site well into their first year, missing opportunities to further enhance their students’ learning. Pinterest I think that a class Pinterest page is a wonderful idea. It would allow students to search for ideas and pin them to a class or personal board and then share them. They could also create their own boards or ideas on their own account. Following other users on Pinterest is useful as well because on can find similar interests such as education, travel spots, photography, science, etc. There is something that one must be careful with when using Pinterest, as with all social media and that is inappropriate material. I would advise that if a teacher is going to utilize this type of activity to send home a notice to parents and have parents monitor the activity at home with students. With both parents and teachers monitoring the activity, and of course district and administrative approval, this could be a very exciting and fruitful endeavor. Communication is the key to something such as this. Parents need to be involved as do administrators. I feel that if we are to bring classrooms into the 21st century, involving the entire family is necessary. So often, parents feel as though they are left out of the educational process with the school system. I am a parent and I know that I do not always feel as though my children’s teachers are communicating with me. As a teacher, I absolutely would want my parents involved in every aspect of what we are doing on a pin board so that they are comfortable with what their kids see. Social Connection Pinterest allows for connections with your friends and followers on other social networks as well. For example, you are able to share your pins with your friends on facebook and allow them to see what you like or any ideas that you come across. This can be useful when sharing the information with a group that you have created. This could be your classroom group project or a way for everyone to check in. As mentioned earlier with Facebook being such a huge place for students using Pinterest along with Facebook would be fun and easy to do. This allows students back into their comfort zone and their friends to see the cool things that they have discovered. This will allow your class to be intuned with both social media and school buzz.